Dear Happy Tolerant Zuikoids
I thought that the summer heat-induced flames were over! I come back to
Wednesday's messages to find that we have had arguments about fuel
consumption and insurance premiums. Before I get onto my OMs in Italy, let
me please say (politely) that you get useless fuel consumption in the US
because you insist on using smaller gallons (obvious innit!) and you get
ripped off with motor insurance because you allow your underwriters to get
away with limited liability... well it's no wonder it's all going down on
Wall Street! Yes, yes, I know that it will soon be going down in Frankfurt
and the City of London.
Well anyway, we hired an umweltfreundlich Mercedes E200 Estate to take
family and body boards etc to the Isle of Elba (if you are easily bored, by
the way, delete now). The first stop was at a private brewery in Bavaria
to check that they can still make excellent beer in that Land/Province -
they do. Then we headed for the Alps and spent a delightful few hours
negotiating the Brenner Pass. Actually, the mountains are beautiful, but
the roadworks on the Brenner are murder. We headed for 2 days spent in
Tuscany. The opportunities for photography there are wonderful, especially
in the early morning and the evening when the light is warm and wonderful.
All the walls are the same pink/beige wash which makes wonderful
backgrounds for portraits and the cypress trees look like little wooden
models and the wine is lovely (various Chiantis).
Thence to Elba. A small with some blue, blue seas. Our hotel was on the
north-western side towards Monte Capanne with a small cove from which to
swim. The water around the island is tideless (obviously!) and clear,
excellent for snorkelling. I took some photos early and late of the water
beating against the rocks - hoping for nicely blurred foam. I got up early
one morning (0500) to travel the winding mountain roads to photograph a
pair of hilltop towns called Poggio and Marciana. As I arrived in the
mountains, I realised that the sun would rise on the other side of the
towns and would be lighting my camera, not the towns! So much for planning
the shots, but I managed to move sufficiently to get some warm
side-lighting on the buildings and the church and campanile.
I used my polarising filters quite a lot, both with the OM4 and the 1N.
The OM4 had Sensia II loaded, the OM1N Reala. I'll mention on the List if
the linear polarisers caused any exposure problems with the OM4. The OM1N
had my little 40/2 fitted and was a very useful little combination.
However, I had also just taken delivery of a nice 28/2, silver-ringed and
MC. Not a light lens, but gave a lovely viewfinder image. The haze caused
me to worry about the use of my 300/4.5, with or without polariser, but I
look forward to my prints and slides with great anticipation. My 14
year-old son used his OM20 and 50/1.8 quite a bit, my wife her Infinity
Twin (an excellent P&S bought in San Diego in 89).
We left Elba for Alpbach in Austria last Saturday. It had been quite hot
all week (30 deg C), while inland Italy was steaming (40 deg C at
Florence), so it was quite a relief to slip into the Alps for a cooling 3
days. The scenery was again magnificent, and we managed to do some serious
walking - vertical in places. We ate twice in a tiny hamlet called
Rossmoos above Alpbach, overlooking the valley as the sun set towards
Germany. Then we stayed in another private brewery near Stuttgart (where
I had hoped to catch a glimpse of a Mercedes ML320, the new SUV competitor
to the Cherokee and the Land Rover Discovery, but made in Alabama).
Now I'm back on the Germany/Holland border worrying whether to go back to
work; perhaps I'll just slip away and pretend I never had a job!
Thanks for listening. Hope that everyone is calmer now...
Chris
"Mankind hopes vaguely, but dreads precisely." George F Will
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